Case Study 1 Kent's Dementia Friendly Communities - Swanley [Update 3 - 28/11/13]

Kent County Council identified 12 priority areas for dementia friendly communities (DFCs). Now we have at least six underway in early stages. Those known to me are Northfleet, Swanley, Westgate, West Malling, Canterbury, Eastry, and Dartford.

The "models" developing are probably different. For instance, in Swanley the approach includes:

• Several months of desk research into the state of play for Swanley (mainly discovered from internet browsing and local literature searching. This resulted in: a) a draft directory of services, b) a rolling diary of events, c) a raft of governmental visions, policies, projects and  programmes and  d) a sense of the dementia journey, stage by stage.
• This blog - which identifies many of the items listed above.
• An invitation to a county-wide meeting convened by KCC's SILK office - which later resulted an intended Swanley DFC being accepted as the third such community in Kent in principle [see Post 1]. 
• With SILK's guidance and action, a First Community Meeting was convened of residents, community groups, local service providers and others. As a result Swanley DFC was underway.
• A   baseline evaluation using several questionnaires and other information is now being esatablished.
• A Panel of Speakers is being created.

At the Second Community Meeting a form of Action Plan was agreed together with a public information and awareness meeting in December.

The intention is that actions should incorporate the stated wishes and needs of those with dementia, their families, and their carers.